Drones support Estonian emergency services during pandemic

The operations are supporting Estonian emergency services with medical transport and information gathering.

Threod Systems, an innovative Estonian UAS manufacturer, was approached by Estonian public health organisations and the Police and Border Guard Board. Frequentis, a renowned air traffic management (ATM) and unmanned traffic management (UTM) systems provider, who worked with EANS on its SESAR Gulf of Finland (GOF) unmanned airspace (U-space) trial in 2018 and 2019, was contacted to again provide its flight information management system (FIMS) which provides the Common Information Services (CIS) function to the operation.

In several regions of the country, the Police, together with the Estonian Academy of Security Sciences, have used drones to inform the public of the lockdown rules and to monitor activity. Local authorities also require support with transporting medical supplies to remote or island locations.

“Severe movement restrictions were implemented for Hiiumaa with the mainland of Estonia, among other islands, during the lockdown to stop any virus spread.”, explained Mikk Murumäe, Co-Founder and Lead Software Engineer at Threod Systems. “Threod Systems set out to support local authorities with medical and other urgent transport to the mainland, including forwarding COVID-19 test samples. This served as a very successful proof of concept to provide an alternative and relief to manned emergency air lifting services, which are urgently required elsewhere during these types of situation.”